As much as I love getting into the kitchen on the weekends to make a tall stack of pancakes, waffles or eggs with potatoes—I love potatoes, you know this. I know this. Let’s leave it at that—sometimes the whole traditional breakfast thing is just a bit boring. A little outdated and not too exciting. Don’t get me wrong though because I still love me some eggs and potatoes and I can never say goodbye forever to pancakes or waffles. I’m not a monster. We do need to stir things up a bit, though, and get out of our comfort zone. We need to party. We need to be adventurous when it comes to our first meal of the day. I’m all for trying new things. I’m also all for having people try new things for me, watch their reactions and then decide if it’s worth my time. There’s nothing wrong with having them be my guinea pigs. How else am I supposed to decide if I like something or not, if I don’t trick people into trying it for me? I’m probably doing them a favor, if you really think about it. They should be thanking me for opening up their minds and expanding their palettes. I don’t want to say that they should name their next child after me BUT the world could always use a few more Jonathans. There’s just never enough of us hanging around.

On days when I want to do things a bit differently, I start to think of new ways to wow people during brunches or breakfast gatherings with my family. One of the greatest things to happen to our lives (you and I) recently was this Breakfast Pie. It’s everything you want in a pie first thing in the morning. Don’t fight it, just embrace the craziness. That was last week though, I’ve moved on. This week it’s something entirely different. This week I’m bringing to you (drumroll please) breakfast enchiladas. Yes, you read that right. Chorizo and Egg Breakfast Enchiladas. Talk about madness, but at the same time, talk about genius.

Sometimes all the things we want for breakfast like scrambled eggs, chorizo, shredded potatoes, black beans and cheese are just 100 times better than we could ever possibly dream of, when they’re all rolled inside of corn tortilla. Breakfast of champagnes? I think so, friends. I think so. The only question that needs to be asked right now is why aren’t you running into the kitchen to make this incredible dish right this very second?! Good thing we have all weekend to fix this dilemma. I see enchiladas in our future, but more importantly, I see us going in for seconds and thirds and I see us having the best weekend ever. Nobody can stop us now.

Do you ever sometimes get tired of eating pancakes and eggs for breakfast and brunch, week after week? Don’t get me wrong, I love me some flapjacks and eggs but sometimes I just need something a bit more tasty and a lot more exciting. Who can eat the same thing over and over again without ever getting bored of it? Unless it’s French fries we’re talking about, then that’s another story. There’s no need to be eating pancakes every single morning of your life. Because of this yearning, I’m always on the look out for new and interesting breakfast dishes. The perfect recipe to wake us up and get us prepared to tackle the day. It’s like everyone always says, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so we should really take our time making dishes we can be passionate about. Don’t you agree?

I’ll never say no to a tostada. Plain and simple, I end up eating more tostadas in a month than I do anything else. Tostada Tuesdays are so much better than Taco Tuesdays, if you ask me. And if you haven’t tried it for yourself then you’re missing out and it sounds like a personal problem. You need to remedy that situation right away. Lucky for you I just happen to have these breakfast tostadas for your viewing/making/eating pleasure. The one component that really takes this dish further is the homemade chicken chorizo. I love chorizo but sometimes it feels super heavy to me, what with all of the spices and fat, so I happen to really love this homemade chicken chorizo as an alternative. Add some scrambled eggs (or cooked white rice) to the chorizo and just like that, you have a delicious breakfast or brunch dish that’ll impress just about anyone, including yourself. I’m here to tell you that making homemade Mexican chorizo is actually very easy to whip up. Sure, there are a lot of spices that go into the meat to give it that traditional chorizo flavor, but it’s totally worth it. It’s health(ier) and the best part is that you can store the uncooked chorizo in an airtight container in the fridge and cook it as you need it. You’ll have chicken chorizo tostadas, tacos, burritos, and breakfast sandwiches all the time.

Grinding up a big batch of it will be the best decision you’ll make all week. Making spicy waffles and layering them with all sorts of taco toppings will be the next best series of decisions in your life. Don’t fight it, just dust off that waffle iron and get to cooking some breakfast for yourself. There’s nothing wrong with eating these tostadas all alone. In fact, it’s probably for the better since you won’t have to share. It’ll be our secret, just between the two of us. The only thing that should be on your mind right now is how many tostadas you’ll be eating. It’s great to have an end goal to get you going.

Julian and I are in the midst of looking for an apartment. Preferably a dog friendly, hardwood floored, large windowed, blasting with natural light, gas range, large balcony, few unit building, type of apartment. That’s not a lot to ask for, right? I don’t think so. We actually found one that I’ve been obsessing over. One that I’m no longer allowed to talk about because apparently I’ve been driving people crazy over it. I can’t even bring up the subject of that apartment to him (or to my mom and sisters) because if I do…well, I’m not sure what would happen If I do, but let’s just say I was threatened not to talk about it anymore. I mean, sure I’ve mentioned it once or twice (if that), in passing, over the last couple of days, and yeah okay, so I might’ve driven by the place one too many times, bordering on becoming a complete and total stalker, but it’s perfectly harmless. I have this feeling about it. I can’t explain it. Maybe I’m turning into a psychic magician or something as I get older. I don’t know. I just see myself living there, is that a crime? We’re currently in the waiting process, which happens to be the worst process of all because I have to somehow continue looking through all the other dumpy, awful, (not that one I want) apartments, just in case we don’t get my dream apartment. Just in case someone takes it from us, crushing all of my hopes and dreams in the process. Not a big deal at all.

I’ve been postponing the dreadful packing part of this whole ordeal because I’m lazy but also because…no, pretty much just because I’m lazy. I figure I’ll wait until the very end, then say something like, “I have so much work! I have to post a few things to the blog first!” And then have Julian do it all for me. *Insert evil laugh here.* Shhh, don’t tell him I told you that. It’s our little secret. I did go out and get some boxes though. That should count for something. And by “go out and get some” I mean I bought a few things online and didn’t throw away the boxes they were delivered in. That still counts. I’m way ahead of the game.

With all of this looking for apartments, driving by that one dream place, and pretending to pack, I’ve been too busy to cook much around here. I somehow keep thinking about that one kitchen I’ll soon be cooking in and how great it’ll be to have so much more space…oh I’m not supposed to talk about it anymore. Anyhow, I’ve been making really easy dishes that require no work at all and can be made rather quickly. Things we can eat while we drink wine because it takes a lot out of a person to look for the perfect place to move into. I’ve always been a big fan of tapas. What about you? They make me feel so fancy whenever we go out to eat some. Also because it’s just a big ol’ sharing feast and you don’t feel super stuffed, like you can barely move, after you eat it. Also, something about tiny food just makes me so happy. I like to pretend I’m a giant eating normal sized food, but in my giant hands it’s super tiny….gosh now that I think about it, I really need to grow up. I should go and pretend to pack some more. Let’s all enjoy this bruschetta though.

I don’t have the best memory. Okay that’s putting it mildly. If I’m being honest, I have the worst memory ever. Like on the planet. In the history of memory having, I’m at the very bottom. I envy my sister who can seriously remember things from inside the womb. It’s scary how much she can recall from when she was tiny and itty bitty. We’ll be talking about something in particular and then all of a sudden she’ll bust out a memory and include when, where, what she was wearing, what she had said and what she was doing on a specific date. She’ll say something like, “Remember when I was born, I came home from the hospital wearing that yellow bunny onesie and played in my crib?!” Okay I exaggerate. I on the other hand, can’t even remember what I ate yesterday. This is not an exaggeration. I have very little recollections of my childhood. I mean sure I remember a few things here and there and bits and pieces of certain moments when I was young, but for the most part my mind’s a blank. My sisters will gladly tell you that I was oblivious as a kid. Always wandering off and in my own world, never paying attention. I guess this is what happens when you’re the only boy and the youngest in the family. There are certain things however that I do remember. Like the traditional putting up of the christmas tree. Putting the tinsel one strand at a time, we weren’t allowed to throw clumps of shiny tinsel all at once. The fact that my mother would only make soup on the hottest days of the year. How I couldn’t sit still for the life of me and was constantly moving around, jumping, grabbing, or pushing buttons as a kid. The way my mother would hide our halloween candy (in her closet up above the shelf) giving us only one piece a day. Talk about torture. It took about 2o minutes for my sister and I to find it, climb up and sneak a few (okay like 10) pieces of candy a day. Sorry mom. I also recall the constant watching of a certain movie. This movie in particular probably defines my entire existence. Not only because it was released the year I was born but because we’d watch it all the time to this day. It is by far the fondest memory I have. Now that I’m older it’s definitely one of my favorite films.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a foreign film from Spain by Pedro Almodóvar —hands down his best work of all time. I learned two things from watching this movie so often throughout my entire life. One, that no one is as badass as Pepa Marcos and two, gazpacho can solve all of your problems in more ways than one. This dish will forever be synonymous with that movie for me until the end of time. Whenever I hear someone mention gazpacho or if I see it on a menu somewhere this movie and the spiked gazpacho with 25 or 30 sleeping pills will come to mind. So here we are today making not one, but two gazpacho recipes. There’s a scene towards the end of the film when the police are asking the main character what exactly is inside the gazpacho. I remember wanting to make it (minus the drugs of course) as she listed off the ingredients in it. “Tomate, pepino, pimiento, cebolla, una puntita de ajo, aceite, sal, vinagre, pan duro y agua. El secreto está en mezclarlo bien.” The secret is in mixing it well she claimed, and she’s right. I also remember thinking what in the world is gazpacho. It looked like plain ol’ tomato juice to me. It’s cold soup friends. Wonderfully delicious cold soup. So I’m giving you two gazpacho recipes. My take on this classic Spanish dish. Perfect for the summer weather. The first is a chunky watermelon gazpacho served with grilled shrimp and the second is a traditional smooth gazpacho, just like in the film.